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Mary Alice (Burns) Spray

Submitted by Aurora1 on Thu, 01/18/2018 - 4:19pm

Mary Alice (Burns) Spray, age 91, of Aurora, passed away peacefully Thursday, January 18, 2018, at Memorial Community Care.
Funeral Services will be held at 10:30 a.m.., Wednesday, January 24 at the First Christian Church in Aurora. Rev. Bruce Bradley will officiate. Interment will be in the Plainfield Cemetery west of Bradshaw at 2 p.m. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday at Higby-McQuiston Mortuary. Eastern Star Rites will be at 6:30 p.m. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family through the mortuary website at www.higbymortuary.com.
Mary Alice was born on the family homestead February 9, 1926 in Adams County, to John C. and Mary Helen (Coon) Burns. She graduated from Hastings High School in 1943 and Hastings College in 1947. While teaching in Wolbach, she met Don Spray of Bradshaw. They married in Hastings on July 18, 1948. Don worked for the Burlington Railroad and Mary Alice and their growing family moved with him to many small towns in Nebraska as well as Billings, MT and Torrington, WY.
Mary Alice was active in her church and went back to teaching in 1960 where she taught or was Library Specialist in rural Valley County, Sargent, and Goshen County, Wyoming. She earned her Master’s Degree in School Media, working in that area until retirement. Mary Alice was a life member of the Order of the Eastern Star, serving many offices within that organization, her favorite being the Office of Ruth.
She loved Don, her children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoyed traveling and handwork and crafts of all kinds. She was a superb seamstress and quilter. Mary Alice also mastered crocheting, knitting and tatting and needlepoint.
Mary Alice was preceded in death by her husband Don, her parents and siblings Barrows Burns, Thalia Utecht, Twila Schumacher and Joan Rutherford, as well as her sons-in-law, Lee Miller and Wayne Noller.
She leaves to cherish her memory her children, Mary Lou Miller, Betsy Noller, Ken (Ramona) Spray and Phyllis Hays; 9 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.